For anyone undergoing chemotherapy for cancer, the loss of hair can be a devastating psychological blow.

Maureen O'Connor and her twin sister, Kathleen, are both breast cancer survivors. Maureen's treatment included chemotherapy.

"When I found out I had to have chemotherapy, I -- like most women -- thought I was going to lose my hair," she said.

Her oncologist told her there was no way around it, but her older sister, Mary, heard a commercial on the radio about a treatment called cold cap therapy that allows chemo patients to keep their hair. The ad mentioned Dr. Young Lee at Medstar Harbor Hospital. O'Connor said she made an appointment.

11 News I-Team reporter Mindy Basara said O'Connor's face lights up when she recalls that first meeting with Lee.

"Oh my God, it was like the best day. I really in my head thought, 'It's for somebody else, it's not for me.' But it was for me. And she said, 'Oh, it will work for you,' and my twin sister and I almost started crying, because it's a big deal," O'Connor explained.

The cold caps are made of a special gel material that is kept at -44 degrees Fahrenheit. The patient wears the cap during the chemotherapy treatment, and the extreme cold keeps the blood -- and therefore the chemo -- from reaching the hair follicles, doctors said.

O'Connor described the cold cap therapy as a very bad ice cream headache, but she said after a while, she got used to it and felt it was definitely worth the discomfort.

Lee said she first learned of the treatment from a patient.

"She was in her early 40s, and she had two young children. She didn't want her children to find out that mommy was sick and going through chemotherapy, so she and her husband had done research about the cold caps that could prevent hair loss, and it worked beautifully for her. I became a believer after that," Lee said.

So far, six of Lee's breast cancer patients have used the caps, and all six kept their hair. Lee said there is no reason to think the cold caps wouldn't work for other types of cancer patients but would not recommend their use for patients with blood cancers.

Bad news: Caps not FDA approved

The only catch is that cold caps are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Patients have to rent them themselves, bring them to their hospital and store them in a freezer, Basara reported. The cost to rent the caps is $560 a month.

The FDA confirmed it has not approved those types of devices, but it would not elaborate as to why.

Lee said she sees their value first-hand.

"I think there's a big psychological trauma when a woman sees her hair fall out in clumps, added to the fact that they are battling the cancer and all the emotional aspects of it," she said.

O'Connor is adamant that keeping her hair helped her through a very trying time. She said she feels so strongly that she is willing to publicly reveal she has breast cancer, which is something that very few people knew until this story.

"I want other women to know about this. I didn't put this on Facebook because I didn't want people to know. It's just something I'm going through," she said. "But when I was told, 'There's nothing you can do, you are going to lose your hair, everyone is going to know,' and then I found out by happenstance that there is a treatment out there -- that women don't have to lose their hair if they choose not to -- I was shocked, and I think everybody should know. It's only fair."